CHAPTE I! III. 



THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MAHSEER. 



" I in those Bowery meads would be; 

 These oryBta] streams should solace me; 

 To whose harmonious bubbling noise 

 I with my angle would rejoice." — 



Izaak Walton. 



11 avit\Kvaa \pvtreov i\9vv 

 irarra roi \pvaif irnrvicaoftivov." — TnEOC. It). XXI. 



" I landed him, a fish compact with gold." — 



Chapman's Translation. 



It may be interesting to some thai a few words should here be 

 Introduced on the natural history of the Mahseer. Tito Mahseer 

 is a carp, though, as we shall sec hereafter, very different in size, 

 flavour, strength, activity, and so forth, from his ignoble name- 

 sake in England, or rather from the fish that we have been 



accustomed from our boyh 1 t^> call tJu carp, as if there was not 



a very large family of them. So if you like it better, you can call 

 him a barbel His genealogy maj lie given as follows: — 



Amiualia. 

 Vertebrnta. 

 Class. Pisces. 



Sub-class. Teleostii. 

 Order. Physostomi. 

 Family. Cvprinida?. 

 Sub-family. Cyprininir. 

 Genus. Barbus. 



Sub-genus. Barbodes. 

 Species. Barbus (liarbodes) tor. 

 or Species. Barbus tor. 



Those who have read my first edition may perhaps notice that 



Teleostii. Greek, teleos, perfect ; osteon, bone. 



Physostomi. Greek, phi/sa, a bladder ; stoma, a mouth ; the swimming bladder 

 communicates with the digestive canal by a duet. 

 C'i prinidse. Latin, ri/jirinus, a carp. 

 Barbus. Latin, barba, a beard. 

 TUB HOD IX IXDIA. C 



